


Not Part of the Job

by Queenzie



Category: DCU, Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016), Son of Batman (2014), Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assassin! Damian, Assassination Attempt(s), Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mostly Damian's perspective, POV Third Person, Sloppy Makeouts, Slow Burn, The League of Assassins (DCU)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-14 02:22:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17499779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenzie/pseuds/Queenzie
Summary: Damian Al Ghul never meets his father and stays by his mothers side in the League of Assassins. When he is assigned a new target, a girl named Raven, he knows this will be a challenge for multiple reasons. One of them being that he finds himself growing attached to her as they bond.





	1. Chapter 1

Damian Al Ghul was as agile as an olympic gymnast, except better.

Of course, this is not a surprise. He was raised by two of the most powerful people in the world; Talia and Ra’s Al Ghul. The demon’s head and his daughter. 

His mother had raised him to be as strong as physically possible, and that meant showing no emotion. She wanted her son to be a warrior. 

The smell of blood lingered heavily in the apartment after a brutally beaten body finally gave out. After raiding the room for what he needed, he fled the scene without a trace. 

This was just an ordinary night for the sixteen year old boy. Finding his target, getting a clean kill, and collecting the debts. It was like a routine by now. 

However, this is not why the young assassin was sent to Jump City. He was sent here by the League of Assassins to kill a certain girl by the name of Raven. And on the flash drive in his hand was all the necessary information about his new target. 

Once he made it back to the safe house he was staying in he grabbed a bite to eat and got to his computer, immediately plugging the flash drive into it. As soon as he opened up the information, his eyes scanned frantically over the words. 

_ Raven: a demon/human hybrid. Daughter of Trigon. Member of the Teen Titans. She is currently seventeen years old. Her powers are tied to her emotions. Her abilities include but is not limited to: telekinesis, darkness control, force-fields, teleportation, empathy, levitation, healing, and spell-casting magic. She’s a walking bridge between the underworld and Earth.  _

“This is gonna be a pain in the ass,” Damian mumbled to himself as he ran a hand through his hair, looking at the image of a black haired girl with violet eyes and a noticeable gothic fashion sense. At least it wouldn’t be too difficult to find her. 

After reading over all the data, he took the flash drive out and shut down his computer. He made his way to the bathroom and stripped off his clothes, admiring himself in the mirror before stepping into a hot shower. 

When he got out he dried off with a towel and put on a pair of sweatpants. He decided he was calling it a night and crashed onto the bed, immediately slipping into sleep. 


	2. Chapter 2

The next night was like the last, except Damian didn’t get a clean kill. Or a kill at all. 

His usual guts and glory filled night was replaced with his first failed assassination attempt. 

He had managed to use his stealthiness and hacking skills to sneak his way into the Titans tower, which wasn’t hard to find at all, it was a giant ‘T’ in the middle of Jump City for crying out loud. Once inside he found Raven’s room, but was met with a bigger challenge. She easily sensed his presence and awoke from her sleep, eyes glowing red. 

“ ** _Who’s there?!_** ” Raven growled, raising up from her bed. Damian just remained quiet and hid in the shadows of her immensely dark bedroom. When there was no answer, Raven used her telekinesis to push her furniture in front of him, trapping him against the wall. “You made a huge mistake coming into _**my** _room.” 

Damian’s eyes went wide inside his mask. He quickly realized how powerful she really was. 

This wasn’t going to be easy. 

As Raven inched towards him, he managed to free himself and hopped in the desk, then leaped off the desk with his katana in hand. Before he could strike her, a black energy-shield appeared and blocked his attack. This knocked him onto the ground. 

Suddenly all the candles lit up around them and illuminated the room to where they could see each other. Raven was only wearing a baggy t-shirt and panties, with her hair still wet from the shower. Damian paid no mind to that. Sexual attraction wasn’t useful for him. At least not yet. 

Raven glared down at the boy who was dressed in all black, the only visibly feature on him being his eyes which was a color she couldn’t quite make out in the dim light. Not only that, but it was hard to read his emotions right now. She couldn’t pick up a single thing. “What is your business here?” Raven questioned, irritation evident in her tone. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Damian responded, his voice  being masked by his suit, “I’m trying to kill you.” 

“Well good luck,” Raven replied, prepared to dodge another one of his attacks at any given time. 

The sound of knocking came from the door. “Raven, is everything alright in there? We heard a lot of commotion.” 

The two teens made eye contact one last time before Damian was already headed for the window, leaping out of it before she could use her abilities to stop him. 

“It was nothing,” Raven assured, looking at the open window. 

* * *

Damian safely landed under the tower with the help of his grappling hook and sprinted towards the water, swimming underneath the waves until he found himself back on the other side of land.

“Dammit,” he cursed to himself under his shaky breath that was visible in the crisp cold air. He was soaked from head to toe. 

Shaking off the cold, he began to make his way back to his safe house, leaping across rooftops in the process. 

Once back, he stripped off his soaked clothes and threw them in the laundry for him to wash and dry later. He took a warm shower and dressed himself before sitting down at his computer. 

He began making a plan for the next day, knowing that he couldn’t just simply strike and kill her. She wasn’t going to go down easily. This new plan would take some more effort, but with time and skill it would work. He would make sure of it.

After he thought he was finished he shut off his computer and returned to his bed, getting underneath the warm cover and falling asleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

It was a cold, sunny morning in the city. Birds were chirping as they soared through the cloudless sky and sat on powerlines. Adults were driving to work and picking up breakfast on the way. Kids were being walked to public school. And Damian was sitting against a brick wall, eating a banana for breakfast while listening in on the comms of the police car that was parked in the alley. 

He was waiting for a distress call, a call for the Titans to spring into action. 

After an hour of waiting Damian grew impatient and went to the cafe around the corner to get a drink. He bought it with the money he got from his job. He might as well with the extra cash. 

Damian strolled back down the sidewalk while chugging down his water bottle. Right when he was about to sit back down in his previous spot he heard the comms go off. 

“ _We have a report of armed men robbing the Jump City bank_ .”

Damian’s ears perked up. “Finally, some action,” he said to himself before rushing to the nearest public bathroom. 

After changing into his new suit, he fled from the bathroom and ran into a different alley, grabbing his locked to a pole motorbike. He had gotten it just yesterday and was thrilled to take it on a test drive. It was red with a black ‘R’ painted on the side. He didn’t have his license to drive, but that’s never stopped him from driving before. 

He took one glance at himself in the store window before taking off. His new suit had a black and red cowl, a black kevlar tunic with a red bird design on the chest, red spandex pants and black boots, along with a red cape. Instead of his usual katana, Escrima sticks were being held on his back. The more he looked at himself the more he realized how ridiculous it looked compared to his assassin attire. 

He wasn’t the only one staring, he could feel other people’s questionable gazes on him. 

This would definitely gain the Titans attention. 

Damian ignored the looks he got and started up his bike and listened to the engine roar before taking off, heading to the bank.

Gunshots were heard from a block away. When he arrived, he carelessly parked his bike and scanned the area. 

People were fleeing the building while gunshots were still heard inside. Police had the place surrounded with guns aimed at the doors. 

Damian rushed into the building, ignoring the policemen behind him that were yelling at him to stand back. 

Inside the masked men were raiding the vaults behind the desk, shooting anyone at point blank that were trying to stop them. On the floor laid several sprawled out bodies of men and women, blood surrounding them. This didn’t bother Damian, he was used to the sight of that. 

A masked man pointed his gun at Damian, “Stand down or I’ll shoot!” 

Damian stood his ground and extended his Escrima sticks, prepared to deflect every bullet that came his way. 

With ease Damian lept over the counter and took out the one who had aimed his gun at him, knocking the gun from his hand before he could fire a single shot. Damian had to be easier now because he knew the Titans wouldn’t take him in if they knew he killed. He had to be a hero now. Or at least pretend to. 

One of the other two men started shooting at him. Damian deflected every bullet with his sticks and took out the closest one, throwing his unconscious body at the other. 

When all three men were out, he turned his attention to the victims. All of them were brutally shot to death except one woman who was sitting against the wall, twitching in pain as she held tightly onto her bullet wound. 

Damian leaned down to her level and put her arm around his shoulder to prop her up. She took the offer and tried as hard as she could to walk. He didn’t know how to comfort others so he was silent while he did so. 

Once he got her outside he made his way over to the ambulance. The crowd around him were clapping and praising him. 

The police rushed inside the building and captured the three criminals and took them into custody while others covering the deceased bodies. 

“My daughter…” the woman weakly spoke up, blood trailing from her bottom lip. Damian turned his attention to her. “She’s in there… hiding in… the bathroom…” 

After sitting her down in the ambulance and letting the paramedics, he rushed back inside to find the little girl. Inside the public restroom was indeed a little girl, shaking as she hid in a stall. Damian crouched down to her level and held out a hand. When she didn’t take his offer and instead scooter farther away he let out a sigh. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Those words were new to his vocabulary. 

With those words the girl slowly got up and hugged his torso. Damian wrapped his arms around her small frame and got up, carrying her outside. 

“Maya!” A man called as soon as he spotted his child. 

The girl perked up at her name. “Daddy!” 

The father collected his child from Damian’s grip. “Redbird saved me!” the little girl said, a smile on her face. Damian hadn’t decided on a name for his new identity so the name was strange to him. 

“Well thank you, Redbird, for saving my wife and little girl,”  the father thanked him, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. Damian just gave a nod in response. 

A swarm of news reporters were asking him questions but the police took care of it and forced them to back up. 

“Hey!” A voice called. Damian turned around to face who was yelling at him. It was Nightwing, or Dick Grayson actually. He had done research on all of the Titans days beforehand. “You did amazing out there.” 

“I’m aware,” Damian replied, letting some of his cockiness slip out by accident. Changing personalities was too hard. That was the main flaw in his plan. 

“Well, we would love to have another addition to the team,” Starfire, or Koriand’r added. “We’re the Teen Titans, if you didn’t know.” 

Well, that was easy. It really wasn’t hard to get on this team. They didn’t even know anything about him. They use faith to guide their decisions. 

Three other teens appeared beside their leader. Garfield Logan, also known as Beast Boy, Jaime Reyes, also known as Blue Beetle, and Raven. The two boys had a smile plastered on their face while Raven just stared at him with a vague expression. 

“Sure, why not,” Damian answered, averting his gaze from the other demon. He was afraid she’d catch onto his intentions with her psychic abilities. That was always going to be a challenge for him. One slip up and it’s over. 

“Wonderful!” Starfire cheered, smiling as bright as ever. 

Nightwing raised an eyebrow underneath his domino mask. “What do we call you?” 

Damian thought about the question for a moment before answering. “Redbird.”

 

“Well, welcome to the team, Redbird.”    
  



	4. Chapter 4

Once they added Damian onto the team, he had to live there. Well he didn’t _have_ to, but it was easier to. It would help gain more of their trust at least.

“Hey Raven, why don’t you show birdie around the tower?” Garfield laughed.

“Hey, that’s a nice idea,” Koriand’r added, glancing at Raven innocently. “Would you mind?”

“ _No, I guess not_ ,” Raven answered before sending a chilling glare at Garfield who darted off after receiving it.

Damian just stood there, backpack in hand. He hasn’t changed out of his suit and he didn’t plan to get. He still was debating on giving them his first name and revealing his appearance. This was the most interaction he’s had with people since he left his home on Infinity Island. It's also the only interaction he’s had that didn’t involve shoving the end of his katana through someone’s body.

“Well, are you coming?” Raven asked, looking at him. Damian just silently followed her around, listening as she introduced him to the locations. He also watched her body gestures, trying to figure out what type of person she was. They passed several rooms until finally they came to one that Damian was interested in.

“This is the training room,” she informed as the doors automatically slid open, revealing a large open space with loads of training equipment.

Damian looked around at the room, actually impressed by it. He already knew where he’d be spending most of his time when he wasn’t working. “This looks efficient.”

“Oh, so you can talk,” Raven said, glancing at him. This was the first thing he’s said to her since they met.

“Only when I have something of value to say,” Damian retorted.

Raven rolled her eyes at him and turned around, walking back the way they came down the hallway and up the stairs. Damian quietly trailed behind her until they came to a stop at one of the many doors in the long corridor.

Raven let out a sigh as the door slid open and walked inside. “Here’s our spare room, it’s yours now.”

Damian followed behind her and looked around the plain room. There was a bed, nightstand, dresser, television and a door which he assumed led into his own bathroom.

“That concludes our tour. My room is next door if you need anything, but try not to bother me if you can,” Raven said before leaving the room, the door sliding closed behind her.

Once she was gone Damian peeled off his cowl, running his fingers through his sweaty hair after it was off. He began to unpack his things from his backpack, neatly organizing all of his possessions.

When he was done he let out a sigh and walked out of his room, finding the other Titans in the living room watching a movie. Dick had his arm wrapped around Koriand’r while the other two boys sat with their feet propped up on the coffee table.

“Hey, Redbird-” Jaime spoke up but stopped when he noticed Redbird had taken off his superhero disguise. Everyone’s eyes were on him.

“Oh, wow, you’re not from here are you?” Dick questioned, trying not to sound rude.

It was obvious that Damian had a more Middle Eastern appearance with his olive skin and chocolate brown eyes. He had worn this culture’s more casual clothing for boys his age to try and fit in. “Some of you don’t look like you’re from here either,” Damian replied as he crossed his arms over his chest. He was beginning to regret coming out here without his mask. But, they wouldn’t trust him if they couldn’t see his face.

“Well no, Raven is from another dimension and Starfire is from another planet,” Dick responded. “There’s nothing wrong with that, we don’t judge.”

“What’s your real name, dude?” Garfield asked.

Damian thought about it for a minute before answering. He didn’t want to come up with a fake name, so he just wouldn’t tell them his last name. That would definitely expose him. Everyone in the vigilante field knows of the Al Ghul name. “It’s Damian.”

“I’m Garfield,” Garfield introduced himself proudly as if Damian didn’t already know that. “That’s Jaime, Koriand’r, and Dick,” Garfield snickered at the last name, still finding it funny to this day. Dick just rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, Damian, you like pizza?” Jaime asked Damian, a cell phone in his hand.

“Never tried it,” Damian answered truthfully. He never tried other foods here besides fruits and vegetables because everything else looked too unhealthy. “Does it have nutritious value?”

“Yes!” Garfield gushed.

“I’ll try it,” Damian decided, looking at Garfield with a troubled expression. He couldn’t tell if the boy was being honest or not but he didn’t care that much.

“Sweet,” Jaime replied before dialing a number and ordering a large supreme pizza along with some bread sticks. Once he hung up the Titans unpaused their movie and watched it as they waited on the food to arrive. Damian had no idea how they’d get pizza delivered here but he shrugged it off.

Once the pizza arrived, Koriand’r asked Damian to go collect Raven from her room. He didn’t directly object and made his way to her door, knocking on it. “The Titan’s have requested you to join us for dinner,” he informed.

When there was no answer, he knocked again. Finally, after the second knock, Raven opened the door. She was surprised when she saw Damian without his mask on. It surprised her even more when she realized he was actually attractive. He was different than most of the boys she saw around Jump City.

“Well?” Damian questioned, catching her stare.

“What are we having?” Raven asked, averting her gaze from him.

“Pizza,” he answered.

Raven quietly slid her door shut behind her and followed him to the living room. Koriand’r had gotten plates for everyone and even picked off the meat for Garfield. She handed a plate to Damian. “Would you like some mustard for your pizza?”

“Don’t do it,” Jaime warned, “Kory likes mustard on everything. And it does not go on pizza.”

“It is the best creation on this planet besides Dick,” Koriand’r joked as she winked at her boyfriend.

Damian didn’t take her offer and sat on the couch, staring at the greasy portion of food in his plate. When he took a bite, he was surprised that he actually didn’t hate it.

“So, Damian, what do you think?” Garfield asked, his voice muffled by his mouth full of food.

“It’s… acceptable,” Damian admitted, taking another bite of his slice.

Garfield smiled and kept stuffing his mouth full of food, enjoying every last bite.

“So, where are you from?” Dick decided to ask.

Damian looked up at him, thinking of an answer to give. “Saudi Arabia.” It wasn’t a complete lie, he just twisted the truth a little.

“Oh wow, you’re far from home,” Dick replied before taking a bite of his food. “Why’d you come to America?”

“My mother thought that we were being hunted down by assassins, so she sent me here,” Damian lied.

Koriand’r frowned. “That’s terrible. You’re welcome here for as long as you want, Damian.”

“Thank you,” Damian replied.

“As a team we always have each other’s backs,” Koriand’r added. She kept talking but Damian began tuning her out when he felt someone’s stare directed towards him. He glanced around and made eye contact with Raven. This spooked him because he couldn’t tell if she was using any of her abilities on him. He quickly looked away, a shiver running down his spine.

Raven had her suspicions, she did with every new member. But Damian was a strange one. She could hardly sense any emotions from him at all. This is why she wondered if he was ever being honest.

“Well, I’m going to sleep,” Dick announced before standing up from the couch.

Koriand’r stood up as well. “Have a good shlorvax!” she said to the teens before following Dick into their room.

Damian raised an eyebrow at the word. “It means ‘goodnight’ in Tamaranean,” Garfield explained to him. That made more sense.

“Up for some Mario Kart, BB?” Jaime asked the green boy.

“Always!” Garfield answered before walking with Jaime to set up the game. Raven got up and went back to her room without a word. Damian watched her leave through the corner of his eye.

They made eye contact once again before she went into her room.

 


	5. Chapter 5

The stench of metal and rotting flesh filled the air of the abandoned church. Damian was disgusted when he found a small group of dead children locked away in a room. Some had obvious marks on their necks from where they were strangled, some had their throats slit, and some were even decapitated. Damian’s stomach turned at the sight. Even he wouldn’t go as far as to kill a child younger than himself.

“ _Orkod Fe Salam*_ ,” he said his respects just above a whisper.

After finding the corpses, he silently explored the large church in search of the culprits. When he spotted five of them in a room in the back, sitting around a table chatting, he unsheathed his katana and held it in one hand while pulling out his ninja stars with the other.

With ease, he perfectly aimed his stars at three of them and sliced their necks, watched as they fell over and grabbed their wounds. This caused the other two men to panic and pull out guns. Damian revealed himself and swiftly thrusted his katana into one man’s back, pulling it out just as soon as it had happened. He kicked the body over and glared over st the last man.

“G-get away from me!” the man ordered as he pointed a gun at Damian, his hand shaking as he did so. He shot a few times but Damian easily deflected the carelessly aimed bullets.

Damian narrowed his eyes at the man, inching closer. “ _You make me sick_ ,” he growled. The man shot a few more times before Damian knocked the gun out of his hand and grabbed the man’s throat with his gloved hand, squeezing it as hard as he physically could. “ _I want to hear you suffer, just like those innocent children did. I want to hear you suffocating with every last pathetic breath_.”

The man desperately gasped for breath, watching Damian stare him down as his face turned blue. Damian watched in satisfaction as the man’s eyes slowly rolled up inside his head and he slipped into death. With a thud the man fell onto the floor.

Assassins weren’t always bad. Damian for one didn’t kill someone without a reason. His moral compass was sometimes in the middle.

Damian left the church and made his way to his safe house. He couldn’t go back to the tower like this.

Once he got there he stripped off his bloody suit and jumped into a hot shower, watching the blood of his enemies go down the drain. He scrubbed the blood from his skin that had seeped through the fabric of his suit.

After drying off he put on his casual clothes again and headed back to the tower.

It wasn’t that easy sneaking out and then back into the tower. He’s been doing it for the past few nights after joining the team.

Quietly Damian made it back to his room without disturbing anyone and collapsed on his bed, trying to fall asleep.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t shake the disturbed feeling off after seeing those dead kids.

He sat up from his bed and ran a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. He decided that he wasn’t going to get any sleep and went out onto the roof to meditate and calm his mind.

* * *

Raven was surprised when she found Damian on the roof early in the morning after she had just woken up. The sun had just begun to rise over the horizon.

“You meditate?” she questioned, bringing him out of his deepest thoughts. She could tell he hadn’t slept all night, it was obvious by the bags and dark circles underneath his eyes.

Damian turned his head to meet her shocked gaze. “Yes,” he simply answered.

“This is the first time I’ve met someone who also appreciates the technique of it as well,” Raven replies before waking up beside him, “Mind if I join? I was planning on doing it anyways, but you seem to have beaten me to it.”

Damian was surprised that she had spoken so much, especially to him. That was the most words he’s ever heard her say since he’s been here. It seemed when the topic was something she liked, she enjoyed talking about it. “I don’t mind,” he answered.

Raven took the spot next to him and began quietly meditating, hovering over the ground as she did so. Damian could’ve swore he saw the faintest smile on her lips. Both of them occasionally opened one eye to glance at the other, but never made eye contact.

The two of them peacefully meditated next to each other for the rest of the morning.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *“Orkod Fe Salam” — Arabic for “Rest In Peace”


End file.
